A very interesting summer interpretive program happening in Washington!

Events take place in seven state parks and nearby communities

OLYMPIA – June 3, 2016– The New Old Time Chautauqua (NOTC), America’s only traveling or circuit Chautauqua, is joining forces with Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission for a 2016 summer tour of seven state parks and nearby communities.Chautauquas were based on the idea that learning continued throughout life. The Chautauqua Movement began in 1874, bringing a mix of education and entertainment to communities throughout the nation. When a Chautauqua came to town, all normal activity stopped as citizens dedicated a week of their lives to learn, be entertained and join with their community.

“The idea of the Chautauqua-Parks partnership is to renew ties and to foster goodwill between the towns and their local state parks,” said Paul Magid, founding member of the NOTC and The Flying Karamazov Brothers. “Chautauquas and Washington Parks share common goals: to promote community through education and experience by being a catalyst for cultural and creative exchange surrounded by the beauty of nature.”

“Chautauquas were always held in an idyllic setting—among the trees, by a shore, or in a park—which is why this partnership is such a natural fit,” said Debbie Fant, Coordinator for the State Parks Folk & Traditional Arts Program. “And each park on the tour can tell its own story in workshops led by local experts.”

Each Chautauqua takes place over several days, with events occurring one day in the nearby town and another day in the state park. Each Chautauqua includes entertaining and educational workshops in parks and towns, a community potluck in each state park, live music, speakers and a grand parade—community participation encouraged—through the town. Each Chautauqua comes to a close with a family-friendly finale featuring Broadway stars, a big band, aerialists, comedians, jugglers and more.

https://www.stateparks.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Capture.jpg243186NASPDhttp://www.stateparks.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Americas_State_Parks_Logo-300x188.jpgNASPD2016-07-18 16:41:082016-07-18 16:44:43WA - New Old Time Chautauqua, State Parks team up to host summer events

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Recent state budget cuts should encourage the General Assembly to think creatively about funding the 109 state parks, as the reality of fewer lifeguards, taller grass and messier restrooms sets in this summer, a key Connecticut lawmaker says.

In recent years, several money-generating ideas for the parks failed in the legislature, including a 5-cent fee on plastic bags; expansion of the state’s 5-cent bottle deposit program to include sports drinks, teas, juices, wine and liquor; and a $5 “donation” added to motor vehicle registrations.

State Sen. Ted Kennedy Jr., a Democrat from Branford and co-chairman of the legislature’s Environment Committee, said he hopes the park cutbacks and the economic ramifications will encourage lawmakers to reconsider those concepts or others when they return to Hartford next year.

“I think right now, people are finally realizing the ramifications of these cuts to state parks,” Kennedy said. “It’s time to have a debate and discussion and put all of these ideas on the table.”

The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection recently announced $1.8 million in reductions to park operations. Besides cutbacks in maintenance and lifeguard staffing, the agency’s plan called for closing three state campgrounds and changing hours at certain locations. Commissioner Robert Klee said he expects additional cost-cutting measures next spring as his agency faces an overall $10 million cut in funding from the state’s general fund.

Unlike most states, Connecticut’s parks are financed entirely through the general fund, the state’s main spending account. It costs about $18 million to operate the parks each year. Approximately a third of that cost is made up from revenue generated at the parks, including entrance fees, which is automatically deposited into the general fund.

That wasn’t the case prior to 2009. Tom Tyler, the state’s director of state parks, said the parks survived for decades on revenue raised from various fees deposited into an environmental conservation fund, as well as some money from the state’s general fund. But he said revenues generated from fees became static. A couple of weekends of bad weather could really hurt revenues.

Faced with a difficult budget year, the legislature swept the fund for other uses and covered park expenses with only general fund revenues. Some believed the parks would then have a reliable, steady stream of revenue.

Pam Adams, who retired in 2009 as the state parks director and now heads the Friends of Connecticut State Parks organization, said the idea worked for a little while until state revenues worsened.

“The state parks started to suffer. We’ve been on sort of a downslide ever since,” she said, adding how staffing is at a long-time low. “If they have to take any more reductions, you’re going to have to start going after full closures of facilities.”

Adams agrees with Kennedy that state officials need to think creatively about increasing park revenues to augment the general fund money.

The environmental protection department is providing the legislature with a report this fall about private interest in expanding different types of concessions. That report will also examine whether fees should be changed from per vehicle to per person. Other proposals under consideration include charging a nominal fee for senior citizens, who currently receive free admission, and increasing rental fees.

Kennedy said he’d like lawmakers to review how other states handle park funding and marketing.

“This is not something that’s unique to Connecticut,” he said, adding how the state needs a “fundamental change in how we view these assets.”

Cummins Falls Park Manager Ray Cutcher looks forward to Tennessee Promise Saturday — which is July 23 — when students will be helping with litter removal. State parks all over the region are offering various volunteer opportunities as a way for Tennessee Promise scholarship recipients to fulfill their eight-hour community service requirement before the Aug. 1 deadline.

TY KERNEA | HERALD-CITIZEN

Posted Sunday, July 17, 2016

Cummins Falls Park Manager Ray Cutcher looks at the exotic invasive plant Ailanthus. He’s hoping enough volunteers show up for Tennessee Promise Saturday on July 23 to remove some of them from the park’s trails.

TY KERNEA | HERALD-CITIZEN

BY AMY DAVIS

Iin November, they applied for it. In February, they made it through the financial aid process. Then when spring rolled around, they met with advisors and chose a community or technical college.

Check, check and check.

Now, the final box of their Tennessee Promise Scholarship checklist awaits — eight hours of volunteer community service.

It’s something recent high school graduates have until Aug. 1 to complete if they want to remain eligible for the state scholarship that offers two years of tuition-free education.

To help them meet the deadline, Tennessee’s 56 state parks and natural areas are hosting volunteer events through a Tennessee Promise Saturday initiative July 23.

“It’s a way for our parks to connect students to outdoor opportunities here in Tennessee while supporting their academic goals,” Brock Hill, deputy commissioner of parks and conservation, said in a press release. “We’re excited to get as many students as possible involved in hands-on activities.”

Students in Cookeville and the Upper Cumberland area have numerous opportunities to take advantage of Tennessee Promise Saturday. Projects — which are designed to beautify natural areas and provide meaningful outdoor volunteer experiences — include clearing brush, planting flowers, building trails, maintaining historic features and assisting with community events.

Krissy DeAlejandro, executive director of tnAchieves, the organization that administers Tennessee Promise in Putnam and 84 other counties, encourages scholars to contact the state park of their choice to register for a volunteer event, many of which are limited to a certain number of participants.

“We want our students to cultivate a culture of giving back that remains with them throughout their life,” she said in a press release. “While critical to remaining Tennessee-Promise eligible, this provides students with the opportunity to pursue their passions and explore potential career paths.”

Tennessee Promise is a last-dollar scholarship that provides students with up to five semesters at a community college or eligible four-year institution with an associate’s degree program. It also offers eight trimesters at a technical college.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Arkansans are jumping on the bandwagon with the Pokémon Go craze.

“This week we began embracing a new game, Pokémon Go, an augmented reality game that allows smartphone and tablet users to search for and collect virtual Pokémon characters. So far we have seen numerous characters along with Pokéstops and other features showing up in Arkansas State Parks,” said in a news release issued on Friday by Arkansas State Parks officials.

“We are very excited about greeting players who may not have visited a state park recently and encourage them to come on out and enjoy our beautiful outdoor spaces,” said Arkansas State Parks Director Grady Spann in the release.

As part of the news release, Arkansas State Parks officials asked visitors to remember that the agency is tasked with their safety plus the preservation of our natural, cultural and historical resources. With those things in mind visitors are asked to please be respectful of the following:

Before going to a park, check the park hours. Park hours are available online at www.ArkansasStateParks.com. Entering a park outside of those hours can constitute trespassing.

Please stay on marked trails and pathways while in the park. Walking off trail can be dangerous and can upset delicate ecosystems we are tasked with protecting.

If your search takes you on trails, make sure to carry water and wear proper hiking shoes.

Always be aware of your surroundings. While looking at the screen on your electronic device, you may not be able to see uneven footing, “real” wildlife on the trail, other hikers, mountain bikers, equestrians, or other potential hazards near the trail.

Please be respectful of solemn areas of the park such as cemeteries, monuments, and museums.

Visitors come to the parks for many reasons. Please respect each other and don’t disturb others in the park.

While you’re visiting, take in the sights and sounds of your Arkansas State Parks.

To add to the fun, Arkansas State Parks invites players to tag their Pokémon Go photos or any photos taken in the parks with #ARStateParks. Some of the posts will be featured on its social media or website.

Arkansas State Parks has a history of embracing the latest technology to encourage Arkansans and others to visit their state parks. Park staff stays connected to visitors through various social media sites including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The ArkansasStateParks.com website uses the latest design features to make it usable on most computer, smartphone, and tablet platforms.

In 2008, Arkansas State Parks began the ParkCache Program which placed geocaches in all 52 state parks and created a challenge of finding all of them to get clues to find a 53rd geocache and a prize. Click here to find out more.

In related news, the North Little Rock Convention & Visitors Bureau has released a map of Burns Park for Pokémon fans. Click here to see the maps on the NLR CVB Facebook page.

To apply: please visit the State Personnel website at www.spo.state.nm.us to submit your application and transcripts. Please make sure that you have received an email confirmation stating that you have applied successfully. Please contact the SPO Career Services Bureau at (505) 476-7759 if you do not receive a confirmation email or have trouble during the application process.

On Thursday construction was well underway at Kingsland Bay State Park in Ferrisburgh, Vermont.

It’s all to support a vision of two men from Milton, Joe Gardner and Barry Genzlinger.

“I like to see that bat condo full of bats in the near future,” Joe Gardner said.

The bat condo as he calls it took 100 man hours to build, it sits 8 feet long, by 4 feet wide, and 4 feet tall. This is the second bat condo he had built but says he has built nearly 20 smaller bat homes.

At full capacity, the new condo will house 5,000 bat tenants in the bat folds.

“Bat folds are made from sheets of plywood that are spaced apart by 3/4″. The bats will crawl up inside,” Gardner said.

Gardner teamed up with friend Barry Genzlinger also of Milton and the Vermont Bat Center during the construction phase.

“We have nine species of bats in Vermont, out of those nine, five are either endangered or threaten,” Genzlinger said.

Over the past 10 years, Vermont has seen a sharp decline in the state’s bat population, by 90%. White Nose Syndrome is to blame.

“It makes them itchy during the winter when they should be sleeping. It wakes them up,” Genzlinger said.

When the bats awake mid-winter they leave the caves in search for insects. With no food source, the bats eventually succumb to hypothermia.

As they say, it takes a village, it’s why Green Mountain Power donated resources to build the structure supporting the condo.

“We will be setting four poles and lifting the condo which weighs 1,100 lbs,” Dottie Schnure with Green Mountain Power said.

With the bat condo ready, biologist Alyssa Bennett believes it will help the parks bat population.

“We have a fantastic habitat already for foraging, plenty of water, and open fields that attract insect activity,” said Bennett.

This should be all good news for those hungry bats, they consume 1,000 insects an hour.

From the Canadian border to the Minnesota-Wisconsin boundary south of Jay Cooke State Park, the Superior Hiking Trail captivates with beautiful overlooks and quiet trails through the North woods.

This year, the trail is celebrating its 30th birthday.

“We’ve been building trail for the last 30 years. Ever since Superior Hiking Trail Association became a thing, we’ve been building trail,” Jo Swanson said.

Swanson is the outreach coordinator for the Superior Hiking Trail Association.

“The North Shore is incredibly beautiful, and we’re very lucky to have this in our backyard,” she said. “The Superior Hiking Trail is a great way to explore different parts of the North Shore and to see places you wouldn’t otherwise get to see.”

Just in time for its 30th birthday, the association can also celebrate the trail’s completion.

“We’re building the final stretch of the Superior Hiking Trail this year. That stretch will go from Wild Valley Road, which is near Jay Cooke State Park, and it will go to the Minnesota-Wisconsin border,” Swanson said.

The final two miles are about half constructed right now, and that section is expected to be open by the end of September.

In all, the trail covers more than 300 miles if each section is hiked separately. It features several state parks along the way, including Split Rock Lighthouse State Park, Tettegouche State Park and Cascade River State Park.

“The Superior Hiking Trail is definitely not flat. We have a lot of elevation change,” Swanson said.”Sometimes sections of it are really dramatic.”

That’s what makes it so attractive to brand-new hikers, destination backpackers and folks that have lived in the Northland for years.

“For 20 years now, we’ve walked pretty much every day,” Ben McKnight, a Duluth resident, said. “They’re just beautiful trails, and we’re really close here on Skyline Drive to many trails that we’ve walked. They’re in the Jay Cooke area, they’re all over.”

Larry Sampson also knows the trails like the back of his hand because his hands have spent 10 years working on them.

“I love the forest, I love the outdoors,” Sampson said.

He is the trail’s construction and maintenance coordinator for the section that stretches from Two Harbors to south of Jay Cooke State Park.

“It started out as a trail – a dream – back in the mid-80s. And it was just going to be basically from Two Harbors to the Canadian border,” Sampson said. “And then all of a sudden, somebody said, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to have the trail through Duluth?'”

While many hikers may think it’s the soles of their feet that keep the trail worn and clear, but it actually takes a lot of work.

“It needs to be weed whipped at least once every year to keep that woody growth from overtaking the trail. Nature will overtake it, even a well used trail,” Sampson said.

All that work needs a lot of volunteers are needed. Sampson said he has a list of about 250 that help. Some come weekly, some help once a season.

“I don’t know what would happen to the trail without volunteers,” he said.

For volunteers and hikers alike, the Superior Hiking Trail is a getaway and a place to reconnect.

“It’s giving back, it’s giving people a place to go out and recreate quietly and to see nature the way it’s meant to be,” Sampson said.

“Even though a lot of people come to the trail, it still doesn’t feel crowded,” Swanson said.

“Anytime we get a chance to get into the woods and hike a trail, we’ll do that,” McKnight said.

The parks turn 100 this month, an anniversary worth celebrating for all Hoosiers—especially me.

As old coots like to do, my friend Alan Garinger and I often lamented the loss of the beautiful places we had known. He joked once as we walked along through urban sprawl on neon-lit asphalt, “My dream is to live long enough to see a strip mall rezoned ‘agricultural.’” Alan—an author who was the force behind the Midwest Writers Workshop where I taught now and then—didn’t live that long, rest his soul. I haven’t seen it happen, either. There aren’t many places where a Hoosier native my age can look around and see the same unspoiled natural beauty he first witnessed through a child’s eyes 80 years ago. But there are the Indiana State Parks.

James Alexander Thom admires the McCormick’s Creek gatehouse.

PHOTO BY TONY VALAINIS

After all this time, I can still climb down those old steps in the McCormick’s Creek cliff-side, into the mossy limestone sound chamber where the waterfall plays its trickling, gurgling song. I can still pause among the ferns in the deep silence of a sandstone chasm at Turkey Run, marveling at the sculptural skills of Time and Water. I can still go up to the Indiana Dunes, those steep, golden slopes at the southern tip of Lake Michigan, where I once raced downhill with long, reckless strides so my bare feet wouldn’t be burned by the sun-heated sand before I plunged into the cool surf.

I can’t run like that anymore—I’m not what I used to be. But that place is exactly what it used to be because it’s a state park and has been protected. Today’s giggling tykes can careen down those slopes, feeling that same exhilaration I did when I was young.

May children in every future generation get to experience it. There is nothing, I’m sure, on any iPad or smartphone to compare. A child’s body, stoked with pure animal energy, barrels through a world of natural stimulations: hot sun, soft sand, wind in the ears and hair, vertigo, gull calls, wind-combed grasses, the sheer joy of exertion, the smell of campfire cooking. How can a handful of pixels compete with that?

I’ve spent half my life with Native Americans, a diverse group of people I got involved with while researching my historical novels about the frontier. Native Americans acted as if all of the land they lived on was a park. Their agreement with the Creator was that they could stay there if they ruined nothing and kept the campsite clean. They never dreamed of selling God-given resources for money. The fields and forests were beautiful places to pitch camp, and the tribes enjoyed and benefited from them, even though they didn’t own them. To those indigenous folk, the Earth was the people’s commons, meaning everyone’s place. Europeans came here with a different belief: that they could own land, and keep everybody else off. Their idea of a commons was, say, the town square or the parade ground. Whatever they chose to name those public spaces, they weren’t very big compared with all the private property. The newcomers felt they could profit from the land any way they wanted, even if they ruined it. And they often did.

The Indiana State Parks are the closest thing we have to a commons these days. Credit for the idea goes to a few visionaries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. John Muir (who spent some time in Indiana) proposed the national parks, and gained support from President Theodore Roosevelt, an avid outdoorsman. To get the same concept going here, we needed Richard Lieber, an immigrant from Germany who became a business and civic leader in Indianapolis. Lieber had the idea of marking Indiana’s statehood centennial in 1916 by establishing at least one protected park for the public. He got two done that year: McCormick’s Creek in Owen County (dedicated on July 4, 1916) and Turkey Run in Parke County a few months later.

Lieber believed that people needed havens in nature. Work was really work in those days, and wholesome recreation was hard to find. He had the shrewdness to foresee that citizens near state park locations would favor them more if they had a stake in them, and that there would be less resistance to the idea if the protected areas supported themselves with users’ fees. He brought civic leaders and newspaper writers from nearby communities together and infected them with his enthusiasm. Residents of my native Owen County, for example, raised 25 percent of the $5,250 purchase price of the John McCormick farm, which became the first state park. About the same time, a reporter named Juliet Strauss began writing in favor of preserving the great trees and beautiful chasms of Turkey Run. That land was bought in the nick of time from a wood veneer company.

A powerboat makes its way through the upper arm of Seminoe Reservoir at Seminoe State Park in Carbon County. As revenue in Wyoming continues to fall, the Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources is considering raising fees at state parks.

CHEYENNE — As visitor numbers rise and state revenue falls, the Wyoming Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources is looking at raising fees people pay at state parks.

Doing so would allow the department to compensate for budget cuts and also bring the parks system in line with the rest of the Rocky Mountain region.

However, any fee increase would need legislative approval before it happens.

“We’re needing to look at every possible way State Parks can enhance its revenue,” said Milward Simpson, the department’s director. “We know we need to be relying less and less on the general fund.”

In general, Wyoming has the lowest parks fees of any neighboring state, and the last fee increase was in 2008.

But unlike in other states, the department isn’t allowed to set fees on its own. Instead, fees for state parks and historic sites — from day-use charges to camping — are set in state law by the Legislature.

Thus, Wyoming parks officials are hoping state lawmakers will give the department the ability to raise or lower fees on its own.

“Obviously, when all your fees are set by state law, it makes it hard to adjust to market conditions,” Simpson said, later adding, “We should be charging based on the quality of services we’re offering.”

At a meeting of the Legislature’s Joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Interim Committee last month, lawmakers voted to draft a bill that would allow the department to have more fee flexibility.

Many of the early parks and preservation projects accomplished in the United States were through legislative acts by
the states. There was recognition of this growing responsibility in a relatively new field of public service. It
was through early successes that such American landmarks as Niagara Falls, the California redwoods, and the San
Jacinto battleground were saved for prosperity. A few years later, guided by Stephen Mather, the first National
Conference on [State] Parks to promote state and other public parks was conceived, organized, convened and actively
supported by practically every park and conservation luminary in the country. Held in Des Moines, Iowa in January
1921, it brought together some 200 highly motivated delegates and ignited a “prairie fire” for the development of
public parks across America. From the success of this auspicious convocation of modest beginnings grew a national
state park movement that has achieved unimaginable success.11Adapted from The State Park Movement in America by Ney Landrum

America’s State Parks today include more than 2,200 traditional state parks and more than 8,100 additional
areas that provide wonderful outdoor recreation experiences and unique historical, scientific and environmental
education opportunities. Eighteen and one-half million acres provide for grand diversity – from the vastness of a
half-million acre mountainous landscape, to the colorful intricacies of a living coral reef, to the world’s longest
stalactite formation, to the tallest sand on the Atlantic seaboard, to the historic locations where European
settlers first came to America, and much more. This mosaic of the natural resources and cultural fabric of America
and the splendor of its beauty are enjoyed by 791 million visitors to state parks annually. Both remote and resort
in their offerings, America’s State Parks are indeed yours to explore and experience.

Now, as during the past century and the beginning of the state park movement, the support of partners are invaluable
to success of parks. America’s State Parks have long been recognized their accessibility, and for
their effectiveness and management efficiencies.

Support from individuals, friends groups and corporate America are central to continuing to provide and advance quality
outdoor recreation experiences and opportunities in America’s State Parks and safeguard their importance to the
nation’s environment, heritage, health and economy.